"Let's bounce, baby bubble." Donald said grabbing my hand, he was definitely over this party.
"Should we take Greg?" I asked as I watched Greg very drunkenly stumbling around the place.
"Well if we take Greg, we'll have to take Uni." Donald said gesturing towards Unicycle who was clearly just as equally shit faced.
"If you guys are heading out, I'll help you with the drunken escort." Hat said popping up behind us as we shrugged.
"Alright, you go grab Uni. Meet us at the front door." I told him as he nodded to go fetch him. Donald and I quickly got Greg to follow along with us, and we waited for Uni and Hat to join us at the door to head out.
"Let's get a move on!" Greg said grabbing our hands and trying to pull us out the door.
"We have to wait for Uni and Hat." I told him for the millionth time as he groaned.
"Finally!" Greg shouted, drunkenly stumbling over to the two.
"We've been waiting for an hour for you idiots." Greg said poking the two of them in tge chest angrily.
"It's only been two minutes Greg." I said as he spun around and scoffed.
"Who's side are you on?" He asked as I shook my head and lead him out the door. We walked for about ten minutes making sure one of us had at least one hand on Greg and Uni at all times as they stumbled around. Greg began shouting once he saw a volley ball randomly laying in a patch of grass.
"Greg, no. That's not ours." I told him, as he shrugged and picked it up anyways. He grinned as he chucked it right Hat's face who quickly caught it.
"Thanks for that, Greg." He said sarcastically as Greg laughed. Unicycle yanked the ball out of Hat's hands as he laughed.
"Catch." Uni shouted as he tossed it straight at Greg, who was too drunk to actually catch it quick enough. The ball smack straight into Greg's face, causing him to begin falling backwards. Donald and I quickly caught him.
"Holy shit." Greg groaned as he looked back up, allowing all of us too see Greg's nose pouring blood. We all grimaced at the sigh causing Greg to start patting down his face, allowing him to notice the blood on his hands.
"Holy shit!! Holy shit, I'm bleeding." Greg said freaking out as he stared at Unicycle in disbelief, who just laughed.
"See, Greg? This is why we don't pick up random volleyballs." I said patting his back as he abruptly turned to stare at me as if I was an idiot.
"What? No! Unicycle just gave me a bloody nose!" Greg shouted as Unicycle then started looking guilty.
"My bad, sorry. I'm sorry, man." Unicycle began apologizing as Greg stared at him as if he was out of his mind.
"Greg, he's about to start crying, just say you forgive him, argue about it later." I said sighing at the two.
"Fine, bring it in." Greg said gesturing for Uni to hug him. I eyed Greg warily knowing he was up to something. Unicycle then started freaking out.
"Ew, get off! This is my favorite shirt!" Unicycle yelled angrily as Greg started rubbing his bloody hands all over Uni's shirt.
"Okay, you two! C'mon!" I yelled as Hat and Donald managed to separate the two.
"I hate you." Uni mumbled angrily to Greg as we all continued walking, almost to the house.
"Shit." I mumbled as I watched a cop car come up beside us. "Be cool, be cool."
"Evening, everything all right?" The officer said as he rolled down his window to talk to us.
"Yes, officer. Just a late night walk." I said nodding as the officer turned to stare at Greg and Unicycle who were clearly very drunk.
"I'm assuming you all are of age?" He asked as I nodded my head.
"Hell yeah we are!" Greg said cheering as he fist pumped, before leaning into Donald for support.
"Woooo!" Uni cheered excitedly as I shook my head at their antics.
"What are your names?" He asked the both of them.
"Shhh, don't tell him, Greg." Uni whispered, very loudly night I add.
"Oh, nice going, Uni!" Greg scowled at Unicycle as the cop stared at them before turning to the three sober one's.
"I'm gonna let you guy's go. I don't want to see you guys walking anywhere else but your house, understood?" The officer asked as we quickly nodded.
"Understood." The three of us said as the cop rolled his window back up and began taking off.
"You idiots are so lucky." I said shaking my head as we began our walk back to the house. Once we finally made it back inside, Donald and I decided to leave the two drunks with Hat.
"C'mon let's go to your room." I told Donald as he nodded, the guys giggling as I shook my head at them being immature.
I went and laid down in Donald's bed, as I opened up one of my magazine's that I left here as Donald started changing into sone night clothes. I lifted my head as I watched the door as I heard a stampede of footsteps charging down the hallway.
"You guys are having sex!" I heard Greg yell from outside the door as all the guys knocked on it before bursting into laughter as they ran away from the door. I looked up at Donald who shook his head as turned to look at me.
"Really, Donald? Why didn't you tell me I would have put my book down." I told him raising my eyebrows as he shook his head, a smile making it's way on to his face.
***
Beca and I stood in the break room of the record label that we were interning at, unpacking the burrito's from the bag that we had to run and go get for everyone when Tyler made his way in, not giving us any time of day. He stood in front of the fridge, groaning when he noticed Dax's name written in everything inside.
"Dax— I swear, if this kid wasn't my nephew." He mumbled under his breath as he shut the fridge. I nudged Beca and gave her an encouraging look as she took a deep breath before taking a step towards him.
"Hey, I know you're crazy busy, but have you had a chance to check out those demos?" Beca asked as I turned back around continuing to unpack burritos as I pretended not to listen in on their conversation.
"Uh, yeah, yeah, I did." He said as he nodded his head, just staring at Beca.
"This dead air between us is a good sign." Beca said pretending to laugh in an attempt to break the ice between them.
"Beca you got a great ears, you proved that in the booth, and I was super excited to hear what else you had, and what you gave me was more mash ups." He said clearly disappointed and bored with the conversation.
"That's sorta what I do."
"Listen, Reggie, is it Reggie?"
"Beca... that happens a lot, though, you'd be surprised." Beca said trying to play it off as she let out a small laugh.
"Okay, here's the thing, any kid with ears and a laptop can do that. Dax can do that. So, that's fine if you want a career DJing raves out in the desert, but if you want to write 'Music producer' on your tax forms someday, then you've got to have an original voice. You understand? Show me what you can do. Right now all I have is a demo with mash-ups on it." He said a bit harshly.
"Yeah, yeah, I got lots of stuff to say, I'm just saving it all up." I heard Beca say, as my heart hurt for her.
"Look Bridget— Rebec— What is it, Beca?" He asked still clearly confused on what her name is.
"Beca."
"Okay, yeah. You're an intern, and everybody else in here is an intern. You're talented, everybody else in here is talented. So what the hell makes you special? Do you know what I mean?" Tyler continued before his tone softened a bit, "So what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna give you one more shot to show me who you are. As an artist, okay? Do not waste it."
"No, sir, I will not waste it." Beca said relief clear in her voice.
"I really hope you don't, for your sake, because I would hate to think that singing covers in an a cappella group is all you can do." Tyler said, as I heard his footsteps making there way to the door.
"Please replace the paper towels." He yelled as he made his way out the door.
"Holy shit." Beca said, turning towards me as both of our eyes widened.
"Beca, I'm so sorry. Whatever you come up with next is going to blow him away." I told her as I pulled her into a hug.
"I think I'm just gonna head out early tonight. Can you cover for me?" She asked obviously upset and holding back tears as I nodded to her.
"No problem, I can handle all this. I'll get a cab home tonight." I told her as she nodded.
"And the paper towels?" She said trying to smile as her eyes were glossing over.
"And the paper towels." I told her smiling as she nodded and made her way outside, while I turned back to unpacking the burritos.
"Hey, I heard him giving a lecture to some body, are you alright?" Dax asked as he made his way into the break room.
"Oh yeah, that wasn't to me. I'm on lunch duty." I told him as I gestured towards the bag of food as he nodded.
"Need any help?" He asked, as my eyes widened in surprise at his offer.
"You're willingly offering to do intern duty?" I asked him surprised as he chuckled.
"It's the least that I could do. I mean you've wasted, what? Four months? Running to get people's lunch and handing out coffee, just to help out your friend feel comfortable. I think I can suffice an hour." He said as I nodded with a smile on my face.
"I forgot to ask what are you interested in anyways? Career wise?" Dax asked as he grabbed a few burritos and followed me to help hand them out.
"Well, med school actually awaits me after college." I told him as he nodded.
"Really? That's cool." He said as I hummed in agreement, while handing the final person their burrito.
"Handing out the food, always makes me so hungry." I told Dax as I made my way back into the break room.
"Really, well do you want to grab something to eat when you get off? On me? I can drive you home if you'd like." Dax offered as I thought about it for a second.
"Sure. I don't have any classes tomorrow, so why not?" I said shrugging as he nodded.
"Cool, well I get off at nine thirty tonight. What about you?"
"Same here, but it really depends on how fast I can clean the break room without Beca though." I joked as he looked around the room.
"I'll help you out with it." He said as I nodded, while he went back to his desk. I spent awhile making coffee for a fee people as well as cleaning the bathroom and stocking the office with a few thing before I finally checked my phone for the time. I took a look at my phone to see the time seeing it was ten minutes before nine thirty. I began grabbing my things, realizing Dax was making his way over to me.
"You ready?" He asked before I gasped.
"Shit. Paper towels." I said as I quickly made my way over to the supply closet and searched for a roll.
"Paper towels?" Dax asked as he followed behind me confused.
"Tyler said I needed to replace them." I mumbled as I quickly swapped out the now empty roll.
"I see. Well now thats done, now are you ready?" He asked as I huffed and nodded.
"Where do you want to eat at?" He asked as we made our way over to his car.
"Hmm, a burger joint maybe?" I asked him I hopped in and buckled up.
"Alright, deal." He said as he began driving to a popular local burger place in town. Dax making his way inside as I didn't feel like getting out.
"Two cheeseburgers for you, as requested." Dax grinned as he handed me a bag, while hopping back in his car.
"Thanks, I definitely owe you one." I told him as he nodded.
"Do you want to go eat at the park?" He asked as I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at the time.
"Oh, I'm not sure. It's getting pretty late." I told him as he brushed it off.
"C'mon, you said you owe me one. Besides you said you don't have any classes tomorrow." Dax said as I slowly just nodded, he's just trying to be nice.
"All right, I guess we can." I said as Dax started his car and began driving, I looked at my phone seeing the time was about to be ten twenty very soon and sighed.
"This is my favorite park, do you wanna sit in the back? I can put the trunk up for you?" He asked once we parked in a empty parking lot beside an empty park.
"To look at the stars?" I asked him confused, while I unwrapped one of my cheeseburgers and took a bite.
"Yeah, to look at the stars." Dax shrugged as he opened the trunk and got out of his car to sit, i shrugged as I shook my head while I followed him to the back of the trunk to look at the stars.
"I'm really glad you came out with me, I feel like we've got this really great chemistry between us." Dax said as I squinted my eyes a bit confused at how he phrased everything, as I took a quick look noticing he had the back seats down.
"Yeah, chemistry. Ha." I said awkwardly as I nodded along.
"What kind of stuff are you into, like hobby wise?" Dax asked as we both befan eating our burgers.
"Well, I like music and dancing." I said shrugging as he nodded along grinning.
"So you like music, but don't wanna be a music producer?" He asked as I nodded.
"It's just not my thing. Beca and I are actually in a cappella group for our university. I'm surprised you haven't heard of us, we made national news for flashing the president." I told him as he gasped.
"No way, I do remember hearing about that." He said laughing as I joined him. I felt my phone vibrating and grabbed it from my pocket. I noticed I had five text messages from Donald sitting on my lockscreen.
The messages read:
'Chloe texted saying you aren't at the frat house, where are you??'
'It's almost eleven where are you??'
'Baby are you mad at me? pick up'
'Where are you? please text back before I send a search party out for you'
'Please call me Cassie'
I looked at my phone in shock, I didn't realize it was almost eleven. I quickly began typing out an apology to Donald to explain where I'm at.
"Is everything alright?" Dax asked once he saw my worried expression along with my frantic typing.
"Yeah, let me just send this text out." I said as I was finishing my last sentence to Donald before Dax took my phone right out of my hands.
"What are you doing?" I asked confused as I went to reach for my phone.
"I really have to text back my—" i began saying before Dax interrupted me by cupping my face in his hand.
"Woah, Dax! I have a boyfriend." I said shocked as I quickly backed away from him.
"Your kidding, right?" Dax asked still not removing his hand from my face.
"No, I'm dating someone, Donald, he goes to my school. Can you give me my phone back?" I asked him awkwardly, as I slowly shoved his hand off of my face.
"Yeah, that's fine. Here, I forgot I have some where to be anyways, can you just walk home?" Dax asked clearly upset as he handed me my phone and shut the trunk as he made his way towards the drivers seat.
"Wait. I don't know my way back. Dax! You can't just leave me here, it's pitch black out." I told him as he shrugged and pointed towards the park that had a few street lamps beside it.
"You'll be fine." He said as he shut his door and took off driving. I looked around the area beginning to freak out as I quickly opened up my phone and called Donald, who answered on the second ring.
"Cassie? Where are you?" Donald asked frantically.
"Some park, I'll send you my location." I said my fingers trembling as I went to our text thread and turned on my location. "Can you please come get me? It's so dark out, I'm just really scared, there's not many lights over here."
"I've been sitting in my car for the last ten minutes waiting for you, I'm driving there now don't worry." Donald said as I heard his car alarm beep, signaling he wasn't wearing his seatbelt.
"Donald, please put on your seatbelt. You can't be my night and shining armor if you fly out you wind shield." I told him as I heard the reluctant sound of a seat belt click.
"I'm sorry, you just had me so freaked out."
"I'm sorry, I'll explain everything when you get here. How far is it?" I asked him
"Just ten minutes, but after the fact you made me think you were dead in a ditch for the last hour, I'll turn it into five minutes." He said, my guilt pinging through the roof.
"I'm sorry, Donald. I had my phone on silent during work, i just forgot to turn it back on." I said sincerely, jumping a bit as I heard a loud honk on his side of the phone line.
"It's green, dumb ass." Donald hollered out before quickly softening his tone, "Sorry didn't mean to scare you Cassie, but I'm right down the street. Do you see me?"
I sighed in relief as I saw the headlights coming from Donald's car. I quickly gathered my things before I ran to the passenger door, yanking on the door handle that didn't budge.
"Sorry." Donald yelled through the semi rolled down passenger window and unlocked it.
"It's okay." I said, going to open the door again before Donald quickly locked it again and started giggling. I tilted my head and gave him my best 'Are you serious?' look and rolled my eyes.
"Okay, okay, that was my goof of the day. Here get in." Donald said unlocking the door still chuckling, and once again as I went to go reach for the handle Donald quickly locked it and bursted out laughing. I tried to glare at him but I couldn't help but smiling at how childish he was acting.
"Okay, let me in now, Donald." I said chuckling as he finished laughing.
"Your highness." Donald said as he unlocked the door and leaning over the seat as he opened the door for me. I thanked him as I threw my stuff on the floor of the car. Right as I went to sit down Donald took his foot off the break, alllowing the car to move a few inches before stepping on the brake again. He burst out laughing again as I shook my head, quickly flinging myself into the seat as he was still distracted with laughing.
"So, you wanna tell me how you ended up at a park in the middle of nowhere?" Donald asked raising up his eyebrows, before putting hid hand on my seat as he twisted around to reverse the car.
"I thought this person at my internship was trying to be my friend. He offered to give me a ride home and picking up something to eat since Beca left early. Then when I saw your text messages he took my phone before I could reply and tried to kiss me. I told him I had a boyfriend, and he got all angry and left me there?" I said shaking my head in disdain as Donald clutched the steering wheel.
"Did you guys kiss?" Donald asked bitterly.
"Gross, no." I said as I shook my head and glanced over at him.
"I don't even know why I'm upset, you wouldn't cheat on me, I know that." Donald said glancing at me as he parked the car.
"Not even, in a million lifetime." I told him as we got out of the car. I raced over to Donald and wrapped him in a hug.
"Thank you for always being there, for worrying, for caring about me. I love you so much Donald." I said burying my head in his shoulder.
"I love you too Cassie." He said grabbing my chin and tilting my head to look at him as he leaned down to kiss me. We walked into the house, and I wasted no time flopping on to Donald's bed.
"Donald?" I asked him as I stared up at the ceiling.
"Yeah?" He asked as I turned my head to see him already staring at me.
"Do you ever wonder what the futures gonna be like? For us, not like the future of mankind in the three thousands. Like— How things are gonna turn out for us, right now? Dang it, I don't mean like right now I mean like in a couple ye—" I continued going on until Donald interrupted me as he chuckled.
"I get what your talking about, baby bubble." He staring at me with a smile painted on his face.
"Well?" I asked nervously, still watching him as he turned his gaze from me over to the ceiling as if he was dreaming of it.
"I know I wanna be with you forever, till the three thousands even." Donald said staring at the ceiling before excitedly whipping his gaze back towards me, "We could actually do that tombstone thing— You know like in that movie? Where they died but they were buried together so they're together even in the after life. Then we'll for sure be together till the three thousands." Donald rambled as I blushed.
"Which one of us do you think will die first?" I asked him curiously.
"Why? What are you plotting?" Donald said darting his eyes at me, causing us to start chuckling.
"You're the one talking about our corpses." I said defensively.
"I was being symbolic." Donald said equally as defensive.